Originally, we thought we might embark on this process with little money but infinite time. We planned to learn as we went and build the house slowly but surely by ourselves. Now we are in the fortunate situation where Kirk is working remotely and, in his words, he adds more value as a programmer than a novice builder. So we have switched gears and are hiring professionals for the major aspects of the project. This last few weeks, we have been interviewing professionals- "green" architects, builders, and straw bale experts. We compiled loads of pictures of our vision and spent hours asking questions. We met some amazingly knowledgeable and talented people and in the end, we chose a local designer-builder team whose philosophy we like and who we related to the most. They specialize in Passivhaus design (which we won't be able to achieve fully because we don't have a huge budget, but we will strive towards it where we can).

Our meetings made it very clear that our biggest challenge will be our budget. Our goal has been (and still is) to build this house with no debt. This decision will have implications throughout the process and has already led us to cut our square footage down to the 1000 sq ft ballpark. We would rather have quality and thoughtful design over quantity. We would also rather trade some expensive indoor space for more expansive outdoor spaces (decks, patios, screened porches, etc.) We will build with the intention of adding an addition in the future (when the girls are older and start needing more space and privacy.) It's worth it for us to live in a cozier space when the reward is having the freedom of no mortgage.